Even if you’re a college basketball expert, you’re probably not picking a perfect bracket. According to one statistician, there’s only a 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 chance.

Having a clue about the Xs and Os can give a leg up in your office pool, of course, but even then, winners often come from unexpected sources. There are plenty of ways to pick a bracket beyond knowing the most about the matchups.

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Picking a bracket by mascots or nicknames is a popular method to solve March Madness. Here are some numbers to know if you're going that route:

The most common category of mascot is People (87), followed by Cats (46), Birds (43) and “Other animals” (43). The least common nickname categories are Weather/Elemental (8) and the vague-sounding Miscellaneous (7), which includes the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Syracuse Orange.

The categories with the highest winning percentage are Mythical (58.6), which includes the 5-time champion Duke Blue Devils, and Miscellaneous (58.5).

The championship breakdown goes Cats and People (6 each), Other Animals and Mythical (5 each), Dogs and Birds (4 each) and Miscellaneous and Bears (1 each). Teams with Weather nicknames have never won a title.

Colors

Your favorite color might be a winner, at least if you like blue or red.

Teams with blue as a primary color (think Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and North Carolina) have won 20 championships – of course, that’s by far the most common color in the NCAA followed by red teams’ seven titles. Teams wearing blue have a 56.9 winning percentage in the tournament, with orange (55.2) and yellow (51.4) the only other colors that win more than half of their games.

Flip a coin

Got a quarter? You’ve got yourself an impartial arbiter that’s perfect for those matchups where you just can’t pick a winner.

Still, if it’s a 1-16 matchup, it’s probably best to go with the favorite instead of leaving it up to fate.

Have your mom do it

She gave birth to you, nursed you back to health when you were sick and taught you how to do laundry. She can probably fill out a measly bracket.

Failing that, you probably have a cousin who follows the sport – give him a ring.

Get a pet

People are fallible. We can’t be trusted to make truly unbiased decisions when it comes to sports.

WGN Radio’s Roe Conn Show found the solution to that dilemma last year, when it had its official fish make the picks. No fish? Set up two separate bowls of food for your dog or cat, with each corresponding to a different team, and see which they choose.

Attractiveness of the team/cheerleaders

If you’re superficial, this is the way to go. It promises some randomness in your selections. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all.